Monday, November 30, 2009

Amelia and Graham woke up to a surprise this morning. While we slept, Santa sent me emails for each of the kids! The video emails are personalized and even have their pictures-amazing, right? :) This is one of the cutest Santa things I've seen lately, and now Graham and Amelia know that I have Santa's email address and can communicate with him any time I need to!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Miss Amelia is one lucky girl! Today, she received yet another 'Get Well' card, this time from Auntie Catherine and Uncle Jon! Amelia loves to rip open the envelopes (actually, she loves to rip any paper to shreds) but she's unusually careful with the card inside. She studied the adorable Winnie the Pooh picture on the front for quite some time before this giant grin spread across her face. Thanks for the mail Jon and Catherine-you made Amelia's night!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Today, and every day, we are thankful for our family. We're now scattered from one side of the world to the other, but we're thankful for you all!

Now, onto the pictures.....I'll admit that these aren't the best pictures, but with two sick kids, we did the best we could!

Amelia is modeling her new Japanese kimono style outfit. Her Grandpa and Uncle Peter decided it would be a fun adventure to fly to Tokyo for a long weekend and they were kind enough to bring back this adorable ensemble for our princess. I'm very impressed that they even got the size right!

Graham and Amelia with the wishbone..by wishbone standards, Graham actually won, but we didn't tell either of them that!

Ireally wanted a cute Thanksgiving picture of the kids, but I learned very quickly that it wasn't going to happen today. But, because I like to keep it real here, here are a few 'out takes' :)

Amelia: "Get away from me, Graham!"

Graham: "I'm going to lay on you until you're REALLY annoyed!" "We'll stop touching each other for a cookie, but we aren't going to smile!"

Can't you just feel the sibling love pouring out of these pictures??? And yes, even on days like this, after being cooped up in the house with two sick kids, we are beyond blessed, honored, and thankful, to call ourselves Mommy and Daddy to our little miracles, Graham and Amelia.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

We'll be back to the pediatrician this evening. This time for Graham. He's had a high fever for two days now, is so miserable that he hasn't slept for more than hour long stretches the past two nights (fun for all involved!), and is generally an unhappy little guy. What ever he has, I just hope the doctor gives him some sort of antibiotic. I'm ready to wipe out ALL germs from our house once and for all!

In happier news though, our spunky Miss Amelia has returned, and we're very thankful for that!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Poor Amelia just can't catch a break these past few weeks. We thought she was doing better this weekend. She was wheezing free, fever free, and the rash from her allergic reaction was just about a thing of the past. This morning she seemed fine. After lunch she threw up A LOT. After her nap she had a fever of 102.5 and was wheezing like crazy again. I called the doctor again. They told me to bring her in again. They gave her a nebulizer treatment again. They took a chest x-ray again. They tested her for H1N1 with negative results. After 2 hours at the clinic it was confirmed that Amelia has pneumonia again. This time in the other lung. We left there armed with a prescription for a new antibiotic, more nebulizer treatments, and a prescription for a maintenance wheezing drug that will also be administered through her nebulizer. We'll go back to the doctor again in two weeks for a recheck. Hopefully, we won't be back a day too soon.

Amelia understandably wants her Mommy constantly right now and because Graham has a cold, he also wants his Mommy constantly right now. Two sick kids and one Mommy...there doesn't seem to be enough Mommy to go around these days. I am sooooo ready for everyone to be healthy in our house!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Amelia woke up with a pretty angry looking rash this morning. It was so bothersome for her, that overnight she was scratching herself so much to the point of making her skin bleed! I immediately called the clinic, spoke with a nurse, who told me she would talk to the doctor and call me back. The nurse called me back and told me Amelia needed to be seen right away. So, back to the doctor we went. As it turns out, Amelia is having a 'moderate' allergic reaction (to use the pediatrician's words) to her amoxicillian which is being used to treat her pneumonia. So, her antibiotic has been changed, she's currently napping drugged up on Benadryl, and if she gets no relief from the Benadryl, a steroid will be prescribed later tonight. Poor Amelia, she's really had a rotten week! I think it's time for us all to be healthy in our house!

Sorry, no pictures today...I don't think anyone really wants to see the rash that is causing Miss Amelia so much distress. I will tell you though, that it sure isn't pretty!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I think we've set a record for the length of time between zoo visits. Between school and illness, I honestly don't remember the last time we visited the animals. So, that's where we headed this morning and when we pulled into the parking lot Graham repeatedly screamed "Zoo!" at the top of his lungs and Amelia followed suit and screamed "Oooo!" at the top of her lungs. As we walked in from the parking lot, Graham began talking about the bird show. I wasn't sure I wanted to sit through it with two kids, but since Amelia had never been, and Graham really wanted to go, we went. Let me just say that I think this was the last time we'll be sitting through the bird show for quite a while-at least with two kids in tow. Neither of them wanted to sit on the bench, neither of them wanted to sit on my lap, rather they both wanted to move around, and they wanted to move in opposite directions. It sure was lots of fun to corral two high energy kids with low flying birds diving around our heads!

Pictures of the kids trying really hard to sit still while waiting for the show to start...

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Amelia was lucky enough to receive her very own piece of mail today! She happily tore into the envelope from her Halmoni and Haraboji and was elated to find a 'Get Well card' and two wrapped gifts inside-one for herself and one for Graham. Each of the kids got a package of Sesame Street stickers...same theme for each but just different enough for Graham to notice and point out when Amelia was touching her stickers and when she was inching towards his. Even as toddlers, these two demand equality!

Admiring her kitty card (she was pleased to see the kitty as it's one of her new words)

Monday, November 16, 2009

Things are finally starting to feel more normal around here. Other than the antibiotics, and breathing treatments we must pause our day for, you probably wouldn't guess that less than a week ago, Amelia was as sick as she truly was. Thankfully, we'll be back at school tomorrow and will resume our schedule with a full social calendar for the rest of the week.

After being stuck in the house for the past week, Amelia had her first outing this evening when we went to visit Uncle Peter, Auntie Lynn, and baby Miles for dinner. Amelia chose to pass on the taco's in favor of macaroni and cheese for dinner, and since she insists on feeding herself these days, that bowl of noodles certainly kept her entertained for the entire meal. There really is nothing as great as a quiet toddler during dinner! :) Thanks for having us over tonight, Peter and Lynn!

Amelia 'helped' Miles put a hat on

During dinner, Jeff was entertaining Miles-making him laugh and holding his hand. Miss Amelia became very jealous of the attention Miles was receiving and insisted on holding Daddy's hand too!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

This weekend certainly didn't go as planned. For months now, the plan for the weekend was to spend it with my extended family in St. Louis. We get together each year for an early Thanksgiving celebration, and I look forward to it all year. I was anticipating it this year especially, as it would be Amelia's first time to meet many members of her out of town family! With her pneumonia in full swing though, travel was not in the cards for her. Jeff and I debated for several days as to what we should do-should we all stay home or should Graham and I travel to St. Louis alone? By Thursday, Amelia had made enough improvement that I feltok leaving her. I knew she was on the mend, and clearly she was in good hands spending the weekend having one on one time with her Daddy.

So, Friday morning Graham and I headed to the airport to begin our adventure. I thought that Graham would enjoy some one on one attention and time away from his sister, but I was WRONG! He complained all weekend that he wanted his Daddy and even asked several times to speak with Amelia on the phone. Sleeping last night was awful as Graham repeated over and over to me that he didn't' like the hotel bed, but that what he really wanted was his own bedroom. When I told him this morning that we were packing up, getting on an airplane, and heading home, his grin lit the room!

Back at home, Amelia had a quiet weekend getting pretty much what ever she wanted. She sure does have her Daddy wrapped around her little finger! Upon arriving home, I was disappointed to discover that not a single picture was snapped all weekend. Clearly, Daddy Jeff doesn't understand that it's the pictures that make the blog! Feel free to leave him a comment if you'd like to encourage him to use the camera more often when the photo obsessed Mama isn't around! :) I was thrilled though, to see how much Amelia had improved while I was away. She's like a different kid, and I'm pleased to say that our lives will go on as normal this week.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

It seems as though Miss Amelia has finally turned a corner! She has been fever free all day, ate three normal meals, and was even excited to play in the bathtub tonight! She is still wheezing so her breathing treatments continue, but even those are getting easier for all involved. She doesn't fight the mask anymore, rather just sits quietly watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and occasionally throwing an eye roll or two my way. For those that don't know, Amelia has an excellent dramatic eye roll. If it's this good at 16 months, I can only imagine what's to come at 16 years! As much progress as Amelia has made today, she still isn't doing well enough for our weekend adventure to happen as planned. Details on the next few days will come on Sunday...

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Amelia has a love/hate relationship with this cute little panda bear. Actually, she HATES it, but I know it will help her, so I'll love it for her. This bear is a child size nebulizer (complete with its own backpack that Graham really wants) and we became the proud owners of it at 10:30 pm last night after Amelia spent the previous 3 hours at the pediatrician. Yesterday afternoon Amelia began to wheeze and it continued to get worse as the

evening approached. After placing a call to the pediatrician, we were told that Amelia would be seen as soon as she could get there-apparently a high fever and wheezing warrants an immediate after hours appointment. After an exam, an in-office nebulizer treatment, a chest x-ray, and three hours of hanging out in an exam room, it was determined that our sweet little girl has pneumonia....poor baby!

Every four hours Amelia receives her breathing treatment. It's not fun for me to administer, it's REALLY not fun for Amelia, and it's not fun for Graham since he's petrified of the noise it makes. After trial and error, I figured out that the only way to hold Amelia still enough so I can secure the mask to her face for 7 (LONG) minutes, is to strap her into the high chair, hold her head and mask in place, and let her watch Mickey Mouse or Barney on the laptop. Initially, I tried snuggling on the couch with her while I secured the mask to her face, but she was too upset and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get her to hold still. So, as cold and unfriendly as the high chair sounds, at least for right now, it's the only way. Amelia cries through the entire thing, and Graham runs around like crazy, very upset, insisting that the teddy bear is really a pressure washer (ever since Jeff used a pressure washer on the deck this summer, Graham is very afraid of anything that sounds even remotely similar)-to say those 7 minutes creep by is an understatement! Honestly, to an outsider right now, our house probably looks like a circus.

Hopefully, Miss Amelia turns a corner soon, because she's really not feeling well. I'm learning that parenting a sick child is really one of the most helpless feelings in the world...

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Miss Amelia has had a rough few days. She publicly threw up yesterday (fun times for me!), developed a cough in the afternoon, had a concerningly high fever in the evening, slept soundly all night, but still woke up miserable. Thankfully, her fever is controlled with baby Motrin and her temperature is currently pretty close to normal! She wants to be held constantly and when I set her down for even the briefest of moments she begins to cry. For right now, Amelia is the only sick one in the house and we're hoping, really, really hoping, it stays that way. We have a fun adventure coming up this weekend and I'd love for our plans to remain unchanged.

I made the mistake of putting Amelia down so I could actually use both hands to prepare lunch. The poor thing just plopped herself down on the kitchen floor and waited for me to pick her back up again...

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Amelia and Graham had their first swimming lesson of the season on Saturday. We already know Graham loves the pool, but we weren't sure what Amelia would think. Really, depending on the day, her opinion could have gone either way. Turns out, Jeff and I are the proud parents of two little fish! All four of us got into the pool (they're parent-and-me lessons) and Amelia immediately began to giggle and she didn't stop until we got out of the water 30 minutes later. She was by far the youngest in the class, but she sure wasn't the most timid. Amelia showed absolutely no fear, even jumping off the side of the pool into my arms, going completely under water and coming up saying "WOW!" with a smile on her face.

I have no good explanation for her ensemble...we were getting ready to leave for the pool and she was dragging her boots around. I put them on her and she looked quite pleased with herself!

Getting ready to get into the pool

The only picture I actually have from class-since both Jeff and I had to be in the water, there was no photographer. I did jump out of the pool quickly to snap this picture though. I needed at least one photo, from Amelia's first swimming lesson!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Yes, you read the title correctly, Amelia actually had fun at school today! She's been fairly calm the past few times, but still very cautious, and I wasn't sure if she was actually enjoying herself. Today, though she jumped right into the activities and even cracked a few smiles which told me she was having fun!

The 'little Mommy' immediately found a baby to carry around

Playing peek-a-boo in the giant playhouse

Becoming acquainted with the dinosaurs. She was letting out the cutest, high pitched growls at the herd

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Miss Amelia is sporting a new hair cut. I finally caved in and decided it was time to have her hair trimmed. Her hair was growing faster in the back than on the sides and starting to look more and more like a mullet each day. Since a mullet isn't a choice hairstyle of mine, I decided it was time for Amelia t0 obtain a more girly shape to her hair. A few snips off the back helped create her cute little bob and I have high hopes to never see her sporting a mullet ever again!

These days, Amelia and strangers don't normally mix, so I wasn't surprised that getting her hair cut wasn't enjoyable for her. We bribed her with bubbles, an Elmo movie, and even a sucker, but her protesting didn't stop until I squeezed myself into the kiddie chair and placed her on my lap.